1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information communication apparatus exemplified by a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to an information communication apparatus capable of printing out communication management information consisting of the date and time of information transmission or reception, the number of pages transmitted or received, transmission or reception errors, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of information communication apparatuses exemplified by facsimile apparatuses, etc. for transmitting and receiving information, information communication apparatuses are known in the prior art in which, in order to keep track of information transmissions/receptions including the date and time thereof, the kinds of information to be outputted as communication management information are preset and the communication management information is printed out when the remaining memory capacity of storage means for storing the preset communication management information has reached a predetermined value. One such apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication JP-B2 2501775.
However, since the information items to be printed out as the communication management information is preset, and is printed out when the remaining memory capacity has reached a predetermined value, this kind of apparatus has the problem that if information is transmitted or received at irregular intervals of time, time of printout becomes unpredictable and therefore printout is not carried out with timing desired by a user, with the result that the communication management information printout function cannot be made full use of.
In view of this, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2-280571 (1990) proposes an information communication apparatus which prints out communication management information at specified time so that the communication management information can be printed out at the desired time, but according to the art described in this patent publication, power is forcefully turned on to the printing section to print out the communication management information at the specified time, even when the operator is away, for example, for a holiday.
Conventional information communication apparatuses often employ a print output section, such as a laser beam printer, that requires preheating; in that case, since the printing section must be preheated before a printout can be produced, power is always turned on to the printing section so that a printout operation can start instantly when a printout request is issued. Accordingly, the prior art of JP-A 2-280571 has had the problem that standby power consumption cannot be reduced since power is always turned on to the printing section.
To solve the problem of JP-A 2-280571, Japanese Examined Patent Publication JP-B2 2678621 proposes an information communication apparatus in which power is cut off to the printing section while in standby, and the printing section is made ready for printing after preheating.
According to the art disclosed in JP-B2 2678621, since power is cut off to the printing section while in standby, and the printing section is preheated as necessary for printing, power consumption itself can be reduced compared with the normally power-on configuration.
In this case also, if the setting is made so that a printout is automatically produced upon reaching the specified time or at the time that the remaining memory capacity for the communication management information has reached a predetermined value, the printout is automatically produced even when the operator is not present during nighttime or is away for a holiday or for other reasons, and thus the above prior art also has had the problem that standby power consumption cannot be reduced.
In a configuration where the communication management information is printed out when an operation at an operation part is detected, if the setting is made so that the communication management information is printed out on a day to day basis, there is the possibility that if an operation at the operation part is detected in the nighttime, the date may have already changed at the time of the operation and, in that case also, the management information is printed out.
Furthermore, when the operator is making a plurality of copies of a document by using a copy function, for example, there is the possibility that after a certain amount of time has elapsed from the start of the operation, the time to start the printout of the communication management information may arrive during the copy operation, automatically starting the printout of the communication management information by interrupting the copy operation, thus forcing the operator to wait the copy operation until the printout of the communication management information is completed.
The invention has been devised to solve the above enumerated problems of the prior art, and an object of the invention is to provide an information communication apparatus that allows communication management information to be readily printed out at desired time while also achieving reductions in standby power consumption.
The invention concerns an information communication apparatus which outputs communication management information such as the start time, number of pages, and errors of each transmission or reception, and an object of the invention is to provide an information communication apparatus in which when it is detected that an operation part is operated or when a printout operation is completed, for example, then it is determined whether a new operation or an operation to start a printing operation has been performed within a predetermined time and, in the case where such operation has not been performed, the communication management information is allowed to be printed out.
In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an information communication apparatus comprising operating means for operating the apparatus; communication means capable of communicating information mutually with a remote apparatus via a communication line; storage means for storing communication management information for managing a communication history as communication history information, and printout time information which is preset with respect to printout of the communication management information; printing means for printing out received information and the communication management information; and clock means for detecting time information concerning a time at which information was transmitted or received and a time at which the communication management information was printed out, wherein the communication management information is updated every time when information is transmitted/received and is allowed to be printed out via the printing means based on the printout time information, the information communication apparatus further comprising operation detecting means for detecting that an operation has been performed at the operating means; and control means for comparing, in the case where it is detected by the operation detecting means that an operation has been performed at the operating means, an operation time at which the operation at the operating means was detected by the operation detecting means with the printout time information and, in the case where the operation time is later than a time defined by the printout time information, controlling the printing means to print out the communication management information.
As described, since whether to print out the communication management information is determined at the time an operation at the operation part is detected, if no operator of the operation part is present in the nighttime or holidays, for example, the communication management information will not be printed out automatically, providing the effect of reducing the standby power consumption. Furthermore, in the case where a large amount of information has been transmitted while the operator is away, the above arrangement eliminates the operator""s effort to find or sort the necessary information from among many printouts.
In a second aspect of the invention, in the configuration of the first aspect of the invention, the storage means further stores a printout prohibited period which is preset as a period during which the communication management information is prohibited from being printed out, and the control means further judges whether the operation time falls within the printout prohibited period, and in the case where the operation time is outside the printout prohibited period and is later than the time defined by the printout time information, controls the printing means to print out the communication management information.
According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the effect offered by the first aspect of the invention, it becomes possible to perform control so that, for example, if an operation performed at the operating means is detected at nighttime when the date has changed, the communication management information is printed out not at that time, but at a time when the operator comes to the office the next morning, that is, when the operator first operates the operating means the next morning.
In a third aspect of the invention, in the configuration of the first or second aspect of the invention, the storage means further stores a previous operation time representing a time at which the operating means was last operated and an operation interval of time which is preset with respect to allowance of printout, and the control means further controls the printing means to print out the communication management information in the case where a period of time which elapsed between the previous operation time and an operation time currently detected exceeds the operation interval of time.
Accordingly, in addition to the effect offered by the first or second aspect of the invention, the third aspect of the invention offers the effect that when the operator performs a prescribed operation such as a printing operation following the previous operation (before the operation interval of time elapses), the communication management information is not printed out, otherwise the communication management information is printed out, thus preventing interference or confusion from being caused to the operation the operator is currently performing.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided an information communication apparatus comprising communication means capable of communicating information mutually with a remote apparatus via a communication line; storage means for storing communication management information for managing a communication history as communication history information, and printout time information which is preset with respect to printout of the communication management information; printing means for printing out received information and the communication management information; and clock means for detecting time information concerning a time at which information was transmitted or received and a time at which the communication management information was printed out, the communication management information being updated every time when information is transmitted/received and being allowed to be printed out via the printing means based on the printout time information,
wherein the clock means detects time information concerning a printout completion time at which the printing means has completed the printout, and the storage means stores the printout completion time based on a result of the detection from the clock means and a printout allowed interval of time which is preset as an interval of time during which the communication management information is allowed to be printed out, the information communication apparatus further comprising control means for controlling, when it is confirmed that no printing operation has been carried out during the printout allowed interval of time which has elapsed from the printout completion time, the printing means to print out the communication management information.
As described, when it is detected that no printing operation has been performed for a predetermined period of time since the end of the last printing operation of the printing section, the printing means is controlled to print out the communication management information. Accordingly, the communication management information can be prevented from being printed out by interrupting the current printing operation. Furthermore, since the printing section is already warmed up for the previous printing, the printout operation for the communication management information can be started smoothly, which provides an effect that the power consumption can be reduced, compared with the case where the printing section has to be warmed up specifically for printing the communication management information.